


A Hand in the Darkness

by Junoro



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Time Skip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-14 21:17:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21022412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Junoro/pseuds/Junoro
Summary: The night draws out dark thoughts and gives life to old fears. Byleth worries for the future, and Dimitri worries for the past. When Dimitri comes to her door in the middle of the night, Byleth does her best to calm him down.





	A Hand in the Darkness

He was back. 

Mostly. 

More of him was back than she had known was there to begin with. He'd always had darkness, but now he wore it openly, proclaiming his need to atone for his deeds. Byleth lay in bed, staring up in the literal darkness of her room. In this moment, she wanted nothing more than to go back to the comforting routine of her old life. Being a mercenary left her with little energy for ruminating. Even being a professor hadn’t been too bad. It was a different sort of exhausting, and still sent her to sleep as soon as she went to bed. 

She flipped onto her side, burying her nose in her pillow. She wasn’t a mercenary anymore. She wasn’t even a professor, though Dimitri still called her by that title. She was more like a _therapist_, and that left her mind spinning in circles every night. 

One of the nuns that was here five years ago had some skill in healing the mind. Byleth made a mental note, not for the first time, to send out messengers to find the woman. When her father had been killed, Byleth hadn’t wanted to speak to anyone. Everyone looked at her with such suffocating pity. It was a passerby, a nun whose name she had not even thought to learn, who hadn’t made her stomach twist. She had been patient and friendly. And firm, Byleth remembered.

Until she could find the nun, Byleth had to make do herself. 

_All right_, she told herself, pulling the covers around her head. _Tomorrow, I’m going to try to find that nun. Or someone else who can help._ The resolution eased some of the tension in her shoulders, and she felt herself relax, just a little. Her eyes flickered shut. 

The sound of running footsteps jolted her awake. Instinct had her springing to her feet, just as a loud _THUMP_ came at the door. She grabbed the Sword of the Creator and gripped it in both hands. Loud knocking followed. She held the sword tighter, and with a loud splintering sound, a fist-shaped hole appeared in the door. The knocking stopped. Byleth’s ears picked up heavy breathing outside

Then, “Professor?”

She blinked. “Dimitri?” Standing on her tiptoes, she peeked through the hole to see Dimitri’s pale face. “Are you injured? Is there an attack?”

“I’m so sorry,” he stuttered, “I—my Crest—”

Byleth twisted the door handle and pulled the door open. “Come in,” she said, gritting her teeth against the chill of the night. Dimitri hurried in, and she peered over his shoulder as she shut the door behind him. No enemies were in sight. Cautiously, she sheathed her sword. “What’s wrong?”

Now that he was here, Dimitri didn’t seem to know what to do. He wrung his gloved hands together, breathing quick and shallow. His black armour exuded a bleak chill, gleaming faintly in the dark. Privately, Byleth wondered if he had tried to sleep in the armour. His eye darted around the room, moving everywhere but her, until it finally landed on the hole in the door behind her. A stricken expression crossed his face, and he ceased breathing altogether. 

Two steps, and Byleth had his hand between hers. “Dimitri,” she said, voice steady and as calm as she could make it. “Are you hurt?" 

He shook his head violently, but kept his hand in her grasp. His other hand pulled at the side of his face, his fingers tracing back and forth along the edge of his eyepatch. A moment passed, and his mouth opened, but then it slammed shut again, and he shivered. 

_Patience,_ Byleth reminded herself. She stroked a thumb over the rough material of his glove. “It’s good that you’re not injured. Was it…” she tried to think. “Did… a cat scare you?” she asked, fully aware of how feeble the reason sounded. 

Dimitri looked at her for the first time. “No.” He shook his head again, much less violently this time. “No, Professor, it wasn’t a cat.” A haunted look crossed his face, one Byleth recognized from the months before. “I fear that the reason I broke your door isn’t even because of a cat. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be here.”

She gripped his hand tighter. “Ghosts?”

He stared at her, eye wide. Shoulders sagging, he took a step back. “Of a sort. It… it was a nightmare.”

Byleth took the step forward to close the distance between them. “About what?” It was the wrong question to ask. Dimitri’s face clouded over, and she hurried to change the subject. “What can I do for you?” His hand twitched in her grasp. Taking a breath, Byleth placed one hand on his shoulder and pushed him, gently, towards her bed. “Come on, have a seat.”

He yielded to her touch, and sat down on the mass of sheets and blankets that covered her bed. The bed creaked under his weight. Byleth went to sit as well, then thought better and moved to his side that didn’t have the eyepatch. Dimitri didn’t notice; he was lost in his thoughts again. “Stop it,” he muttered under his breath. “Not now. I’m awake, I shouldn’t be seeing you.”

She uttered an oath under her breath. He was speaking to nothing again. She bent forward and put a hand on his knee, tapping her fingers against the metal of his armour. It was still cold to the touch, but the sound was enough to draw his attention back to the present. “Dimitri,” she said, as he stiffened. “It’s all right. You’re safe here.”

He turned, looking up at her. In the faint light of the moon, his eye glimmered with tears unshed. “Professor…”

Another oath went through her mind at the way he looked at her. Like a drowning man looking at a rope. Gilbert had entrusted the fate of this man to _her_, of all people. How could she reach him when she felt like she was drowning, too? 

“You can cry, if you’d like,” she said, her voice sounding hollow and ineffective to her ears. Her hand moved from his knee to his arm, and she gave two pats, hoping desperately that she wasn’t overstepping some unwritten law of social interaction. 

“I’m not going to burden you with my tears,” he said, voice barely above a whisper. “I’ve already burdened you with my presence.”

Byleth frowned at him. “You aren’t a burden.” Dimitri turned his face away, and she gripped his arm. “Look at me. Please. I don’t mind if you come to me when you’re scared.”

It took a moment for him to react, and she feared that he hadn’t heard her. Then he looked back at her, and his lips were trembling with emotion. “The door—” he croaked. 

Her eyes flicked to the door, and then back to him. “Yes, the door will need to be fixed. And yes, you did scare me half to death when you pounded on it so hard.” She took a deep breath, and stared firmly into his eye. “I don’t mind if you come here when you’re scared, but _please,_ treat the door better. Take a deep breath, and then knock, all right?”

He opened his mouth, and Byleth feared he was going to make more protests. Without thinking, she placed a hand on the side of his face, against his cool skin. “Professor,” he choked, and then the tears really did begin to fall. Bowing forward, he shook with sobs. One of his hands clutched at hers, keeping it against his cheek. 

She reached out, cradling the other side of his face as well, sitting on the bed beside him. He turned to her with a shaky breath, and then he buried his face in her shoulder. He held her close, hugging her tight with his formidable strength. And it was formidable; for an instant, Byleth’s throat tightened. But the moments passed, and she realized she had never felt such strength surrounding her so carefully before.

A long sigh, and she spoke into his hair. “Do you feel any better?”

He murmured something into her shoulder. When she didn’t reply, he pulled back a little and looked at her solemnly. “I do. Again, I beg your forgiveness for keeping you up so late. And… for the door.”

“I forgive you,” she said, equally as solemn. 

He sighed, bowing his head. “I do not deserve… How might I make it up to you?”

A pause. Byleth gently touched his chin and looked into his blue gaze. “Would you like to sleep here tonight?”

“P-Professor?” 

“Not like that,” Byleth said firmly. “Absolutely not like that. It’s just…you’re exhausted. And I’m cold. I wouldn’t mind the company.”

His eye widened, and Byleth hoped again that she hadn’t spoken drastically out of turn. At last, he reached for the buckles on his armour. “If you are sure you won’t mind,” he said.

“Your cape is big enough to keep us both warm,” she said matter-of-factly. “If you weren’t going to stay, I’d ask you to nail it up over the hole to keep the cold out. This way, we’re both happy. Right?”

In the dark, it almost looked like Dimitri flushed. “Right,” he said. “I… thank you.”

His armour removed, Dimitri awkwardly lay down and moved close to the wall. Byleth settled down opposite him, gripping the furs of his cape around her chin. _Now_ she felt exhausted enough to sleep. She cracked one eye open to see Dimitri watching her silently. He blinked, an unmistakable flush on his face, and Byleth let her eyes fall shut again. She wasn't sure how to process that. She was even less sure of how to process the flush that she felt in her own skin. 

Tomorrow, she would send messengers for the nun again. But hopefully, until they found her, she could continue to help Dimitri from drowning.


End file.
